A Broken Promise
by craple
Summary: Charles promised her a lot of things he couldn't keep. Raven was being very difficult to handle lately, and Erik had his own issues to deal with. "I thought you said you will never read my mind."—Charles-centric plus Erik/Raven from First Class.


**Title:** A Broken Promise

**Fandom:** X-Men

**Rating:** PG-13/T

**Genre:** Family, Romance

**Characters:** Charles Xavier, Raven Darkholme, and Erik Lenhsherr

**Summary:** Charles promised her a lot of things he couldn't keep. Raven was being very difficult to handle lately, and Erik had his own issues to deal with. "I thought you said you will never read my mind."—Charles-centric plus Erik/Raven.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own X-Men or any involved materials.

**Warnings:** Unbeta'd. Grammatical mistakes, horrible puns, plus some more mistakes are to be expected. English is not my mother language so…

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><p>Charles promised her a lot of things—like to never, <em>ever<em> read her thoughts, buy her the things she loved on her birthdays, take her everywhere as long as it's still on the earth (because no matter how rich he was, taking her on a vacation to the moon was simply impossible and out of the question), protect her from any mental and physical harms, keeping her safe from the dangers of the world—there were too many promises that he _thought_ he could keep, because he really loved her and she's the only person he had and could trust fully in his empty not-actually-miserable life; but he couldn't. He couldn't keep any of his promises, not all of them, and it made him feel like he's some kind of a jerk in those lame teenage high-school TV dramas, or a good-for-nothing type of brother that used his sister every time he wanted to.

The first time he broke his promise was when she started acting all weird on him, for example, over-reacting when they talked about something concerning her appearances or even when it had _nothing_ to do with it at all, and different type of _normal girls_ he brought every single night to bed using that silver tongue of his; she became overly edgy and pissed off all of the sudden, and then they got into _yet another_ heated argument that would last for a couple of hours until one of them got tired with the other and left to sleep. The morning after, none of them would speak to each other unless _he_ apologized to her firsthand, because he's such a gentleman that way and he's her _brother_, but then, it became some kind of a bad habit he absolutely _loathed_, and talking with her didn't feel as comfortable as before.

Her new behavior, plus the bad routine, made him missed the old young innocent Raven, who didn't give a damn about her appearance or what others said about her _blue_ looks (of course there weren't a lot of people who had actually seen the _real_ her, because they lived in an isolated place somewhere deep inside the forest, but you knew what he meant). He already heard that the moment teenage girls stepped upon the stairs of becoming a teenager, was the moment they started worrying about their appearances. Raven was different, so he thought that she wouldn't feel that way, but she did, and he was at loss of what he had to do. That's why he preferred older women; because they weren't so hard to handle, unlike those dreamy-teenage girls he found annoying.

Despite the fact that he kept convincing her that she was amazing and extraordinary, that her genes made her able to do thousands of impossible things that normal humans couldn't do, she refused to listen as of what he had to say, and then the silent agreement was made, that they would never talk about _that_ matters anymore. She was the one who made the agreement, and even though he didn't understand why, he agreed, because he didn't want to feel bad or comfortable when he was talking to her anymore. Neither did he know that he was hurting her more and more by sealing that deal, and the only reason he didn't notice how hurt she felt, was because she was such an amazing actress. Oh, and of course, because he didn't read her mind. That was the one and only promise that she didn't want him to break, at all cost, and he respected her privacy, so he didn't.

But of course, good things would surely come to an end, sooner or later. He couldn't stand that new attitude of hers anymore, and decided that it had to end for the sake of his sanity and their siblings-relationship.

So he did one thing that he swore for his life he would _never_ do to her; breaking the most sacred promise that they both agreed on, and that was to read her mind. And not just simply listening to what she's got to say to him but keep it bottled up inside, he did something _far worse_ that he knew she wouldn't forgive him for, ever, by exploring her memories one by one, watching in fascination as her life passed by in front of his eyes, and became oddly proud to know that most of her memories were about him and her, just the two of them, like he was her whole world. He was flattered by how much she loved and adored him, as a big brother and nothing else, but he was a bit annoyed that he couldn't find the real reason as of why she kept being on edge for more than three months now, and he knew for a fact that her appearance and puberty had nothing to do with it (because he already looked all around her mind, and didn't find anything that might connect her recent behavior with the common girls' problems).

Which made matters worse by the way, because if her appearance was not the problem, then what could it be? She kept complaining about it all the time, but that wasn't the real reason as of why she was upset. It was something else, something he couldn't quite figure because if he explored deeper, she might notice, and their relationship would become worse than it already did. He didn't want to lose the closest person he had for a family because of his power. He would definitely hate himself for it, and might end up in a stupid suicide, and she would blame himself for his death, and might kill herself as well. That would be stupid now, would it?

Charles frowned in confusion, as he couldn't decide whether to laugh like an idiot or fall into depression at the irony of it all. Maybe it was better to ask her what was really wrong with her, how could he help her with it, and if the Lucky Lady was with him, he might be able to fix their awkward and slightly unstable relationship.

_But there were too many things going on all at once,_ and he didn't even get the chance to be together with her when they started going after Sebastian Shaw. They were introduced to Erik Lenhsherr, some kind of a long-time best friend as well as his number one rival, a person with nothing but revenge and hatred in his twisted and complicated mind, someone he also thought as a brother of some sort. He barely talked to Raven, from his point of view, but Charles was sure that they would be getting along just fine if he were to adopt him as an older brother. It's possible. If all of their problems were to be resolved, and everything's finally finished, he might agree to become his brother, right? It wasn't completely impossible, since they're close enough and all.

The corner of his lips curved upward into an amused grin and he chuckled, shaking his head and leaned back on his chair. Although it sounded impossible, he could see it, vivid but still there, about the three of them, being the most bad-ass mutant siblings _ever_ alive. They'd make a great combination to start a school for mutants he'd been dreaming of since he met Raven, and the three of them as teachers, plus the other comrades he recruited with Erik; it would be a perfect dream come true. And Erik and Raven might be able to get closer like siblings together, like how he was with both of them.

_Little did he know that they were much closer to each other than they ever did with him._

Everything finally came to an end, but it wasn't like how Charles had imagined it to be. Instead of fixing his brotherly relationship with Raven, he let her leave with Erik, _for a good reason_—because he would've never thought that they were _so close_, because they barely talked around him, barely _looked_ at each other, and Erik had never shown any sign of… affection to Raven, and neither did she show any to him—but it happened. He knew that it really happened, for he had seen what's inside her mind when Erik offered his hand toward her. It didn't make any sense. Why would he offer his hand to her, when it was obvious that she would stick with him, her not-related-by-blood-but-still-beloved brother? He couldn't trust Erik after that stunt he pulled on Sebastian Shaw. He couldn't trust anyone anymore when Erik reached out for Raven.

So he read her mind, even if it meant he was breaking his promise, even if it meant he was betraying her trust twice.

He saw the blonde Raven unlocked a door and got into a room, Erik's room to be precise, and she undressed, throwing her robe to the chair's head and covered her body with the blanket as she lay down on the bed. Her mind started racing, and he could see, hear and _feel_ all of the things she had been worried about—her little crush on Hank, how she was worried to death about him, how sad she was when that girl friend of hers left with Shaw, and lastly, the feelings she had for Erik—it all came down into her head like crazy, and he felt guilty for ignoring her and didn't treat her better than he should be.

"_Now this is a surprise,"_ Erik's deep husky voice filled her ears and thought, and he could clearly feel that her heart started ramming against her chest like crazy. He didn't even see him coming, maybe because he was too focused on her thoughts rather than the actual scene. The conversation continued on for a little while, and he noticed how _nice_ Erik had been to her behind his and the others' backs. By the time they kissed, Charles pulled back from her mind and voiced what she wanted to say, despite the fact how hard it was for both of them.

"You should go with him, because you want to be with him." He said, trying to look brave as he struggled to fight against the pain in his leg that slowly and weirdly, eased down. His heart became uneasy as the time passed, and he couldn't feel his legs anymore, but he kept the brave face for her, as a sign that he already gave her his blessing, because their siblings-relationship didn't work so well and it was too late to fix it now. He wanted to, at least, do something nice for her before she's gone.

"I thought you said that you will never read my mind." Raven said softly, tracing his cheek with her cold blue fingers and he smiled sadly at her, his eyes filled with apologies and sadness.

"I promised you a lot of things." His voice started breaking, he noticed, and she had to go _now_ or he might start crying. He's tough, everyone knew that, but she was still the sister he loved. Getting all emotional on her would be wrong, because it would be harder for her to leave and harder for him to let go. She smiled at him, softly and sadly, mimicking his expression, and he watched as she left with Erik and the other mutants that used to be Shaw's comrades.

_It wasn't a perfect dream come true, but it was a good ending, even though his heart was torn apart with it._

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><p>Wow that was awkward. I don't know how to end this story, so I just wrote that down and left. The fact that I finished this before the other one, another ErikRaven but rated as "mature", is kind of awkward. Like I said, sorry for the grammatical mistakes and all, but I hope that you all will leave at least one review? Please?


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